Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I move amendment No. 18:

In page 11, between lines 3 and 4, to insert the following:

4.—Every order or regulation made by the Minister pursuant to this Act shall be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas and, if a resolution annulling the regulation or order is passed within the next twenty one days after the House has sat following such laying, the order or regulation shall be annulled accordingly but without prejudice to anything previously done thereunder.".

The purpose of this amendment is to adopt the standard procedures for accountability, namely, that every order made under the regulations by the Minister pursuant to this Act would be laid before the House. There is currently no provision for this, and I am proposing the amendment because of the huge number of issues to be dealt with by regulation. In many ways this is enabling legislation and subject to an enormous number of regulations in terms of its implementation.

I spoke to Deputy Jim O'Keeffe a minute ago about the whistleblowers' charter which consists of some ten lines in terms of the Minister's amendment. However, its actual implementation will be subject to regulations to be drawn up. It is proposed, with regard to that matter, that the regulations will be put before the House, but how many other sections will not be put before the House? One of the Minister's most recent amendments, amendment No. 13, refers to the 1989 regulations. We also dealt with discipline regulations under sections 115 and 119. This legislation is peppered with provisions for regulations to be drawn up by the Commissioner and the Minister, but they will not be made available to the House in all cases. When enacted, this will be very large legislation considering all of the amendments put forward. However, it will be much larger if one adds up the number of regulatory provisions that will be grafted on in terms of rolling out this legislation.

The Minister has already appointed Senator Maurice Hayes to be responsible for oversight of the rolling out of this legislation. To what extent will he be involved with the Minister and the Department in drawing up the regulations? Does the Minister intend to involve the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights in this matter because of the plethora of necessary regulations?

I insist in this amendment that the Minister at least has the courtesy and proper procedure to make sure the regulations are laid before the House so that there is an opportunity to examine, object to and seek to amend them.

We have already had major controversy on some of these issues. The Garda organisations are quite put out by the manner in which the Minister has presented some of the amendments. We will not have the opportunity to go into any detail in the discussions or to properly scrutinise any of the substantial amendments. The Minister confused everybody by not including them in the two main books presented to us, even though he gave the impression that all the amendments were included. The Minister then surreptitiously turned up with his own white paper, presenting these substantial amendments which will not be the subject of any proper debate. As a result, my amendment is all the more important because of so many key and sensitive issues regarding the organisation and discipline of the Garda, issues which can result in a great deal of harm if not dealt with properly.

As the Minister knows, the next time he goes to conciliation with the Garda, he will hear loudly enough what the force has to say about his amendments today in terms of how he has treated the Garda with regard to consultation or lack thereof, or any attempt to enter into a form of conciliation on some of the matters which provide for summary dismissal.

The Minister must think about families, terms of employment and so on and cannot simply barge in like a bull in a china shop. The manner in which the Minister is bringing forward some of the amendments regarding accountability will undermine the good work of a lot of this legislation because it threatens the morale of the Garda. Unless the Garda is brought along with us on this legislation in a fair way in terms of due process, we are building up trouble in the foreseeable future.

It is important that every item of regulation and every provision that comes under the precept of this Bill be presented to this House so that the Members can have an opportunity to see it and object to any undesirable aspects, considering that the Minister has refused to give us adequate time to explore and scrutinise his amendments, tabled as usual at the last minute without due consideration for the proper legislative procedures of this House.

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